


Frayed at the Edges

by penny



Category: Soul Eater
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Bondage, Community: kink_bingo, F/F, Genderswap, Spoilers, not ssc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2009-08-30
Updated: 2009-08-30
Packaged: 2017-10-05 16:37:53
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/43773
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/penny/pseuds/penny
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Stein runs through her scenarios, makes her calculations. Eighty-nine point two percent change of failure. But, she can't imagine dying, so that leaves her with one possibility.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Frayed at the Edges

**Author's Note:**

> Set during the Kishin Arc (episodes 18-24 of the anime; chapters 15-22 of the manga). I'm taking certain liberties with the action and don't follow either canon 100% (though I do come to the same outcome), so very, very mild AU in addition to the female!Stein AU-ness.
> 
> For Kink Bingo kink: bondage (other)
> 
> **Warnings:** Sexualized violence, and dehumanization (Spirit's role in the story is as a weapon/bondage implement, not as a consenting participant). And snuff.

Her resonance with Spirit-senpai is at its peak. Stein's mouth curves into a quick, sly smile. Just like the old days before senpai found out about the surgeries.

Medusa must think the smile's directed at her. The one she flashes in return makes something twist low in Stein's belly. Stein isolates the feeling, identifies it. Arousal.

Sexual arousal or battle lust? Medusa's smile is sharp, dangerous. _I never let what I want to possess escape._ The statement rattles around Stein's head, mixes with her analysis, and she finally decides she's feeling equal parts sexual arousal and battle lust. Interesting. It's been so long since she's felt either, even longer since she's felt them together.

The vector plates defining their battle ring vibrate. Stein feels it through her soul perception. Oh? So those vectors are extensions of Medusa's soul, then? Hmm. Stein cocks her head to one side, gives her screw a quarter turn. If they're an extension of Medusa's soul, she and Spirit-senpai should be able to bind them with soul threads. But the focus...

Ah, she's losing focus. That won't do. It lets her nerves rattle and lets too many distracting thoughts swirl in her mind. Stein rolls her head, right, left, and her neck cracks, puts everything in place. The vibrations of Medusa's vector plates sing on the edge of her awareness. Everything trembles on the edge of her awareness. Everything except Medusa, who sways before her in sharp focus. Clinical focus. Oh, how she wants to dissect the woman!

"You'd make a fine witch." Medusa's smile widens. She extends her arms, and Stein can't help but follow the curving line of her dotted tattoos. Serpents. Like an ancient idol.

"Come with me." Medusa balances on her tail, swaying slightly. "A world that doesn't change isn't suitable for you. _Shibusen_ isn't suitable for you."

"I've already rejected your invitation."

"Three times now. I'd say a pity." That smile again. "But I want to chop off your head."

Stein feels her gather her power the moment before she starts her chant to produce more vector arrows. It's a different chant this time, and the arrows...they look the same, but they feel different. Stronger.

"Stein," Spirit-senpai says. Stein's already moving, pressing her attack, but she's not nimble enough to avoid Medusa's arrows. If she wants to land a blow, she'll have to let herself get cut.

The arrows are sharp. Cold. Stein laughs. The pain is glorious, focused and controlled. It brings Medusa into sharper focus.

"I'll pierce your heart!" The arrows twine around Medusa's arm like a drill bit.

Stein laughs. Yes, she'll hit. It's the only way, Stein knows, to land her blow. So she doesn't try to evade, just presses her attack, and oh! It _is_ glorious! Medusa means it.

"I'll kill you," Medusa croons, and Stein can't tell if it's the witch's voice or attack that's making her wet. Both, then. She'll let it be both.

"I'll purge your soul," Stein says, matching Medusa's tone. And likely her smile. Perhaps even the murderous glint in her eyes. The witch is right. They are so much alike.

But she has Spirit-senpai trembling in her hand. Her scythe. Her weapon. Her...partner. As much as she hates admitting it, having a partner -- her original partner -- does serve as an anchor to Shibusen. To her purpose. To this mission.

Her blow is solid. Stein forces her soul wavelength through Medusa, and just in time, because there's a plate beneath her feet. The force of her blow has cracked something in Medusa. There's a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth, but she smiles through it.

"Vector plate." And she smiles as it activates and sends Stein flying.

She's slammed against the far wall. It knocks the wind from her, and she blacks out for a moment. Not a long moment, but when she can see again, more arrows are swarming towards her and before she can react, they've pinned her to the wall.

Stein's arms are pinned at the wrist. Wrist, elbow, shoulder. Her legs are bound the same way: ankle, knees, thighs. Another arrow is curved around her waist. Two criss-cross beneath her breasts, the tips burrowing into the wall beneath her armpits.

Spirit-senpai is sliding from her fingers. Stein curls them tight, catches him just before he slips away. Focus. She still has her focus.

"That's all you've got?" Medusa wipes the blood from her mouth and then licks it from her hand. She stalks towards them, hips swaying. She is a serpent in that moment, every motion a graceful undulation. Mesmerizing. "How disappointing."

Stein smiles. She's bleeding, too. It's coppery and thick in her mouth, scarlet on her shirt. She'll have new scars from their fight. One of the cuts on her left breast feels particularly deep. It'll make a fitting memento. She'll have to take extra care in stitching it closed.

"Not going to make your offer again?" Stein asks.

Medusa presses against her and leans in to lick the blood at the corner of Stein's mouth. "Three rejections are all I need." She chuckles and rubs against her. "You should have said yes."

Stein likes the way her breasts slide against Medusa's. And she likes the press of Medusa's leg between her thighs, the solid flex of Medusa's muscle. She likes them almost as much as she likes the pain radiating from her wounds, the taste of her blood, the trickle of it down her side from all those cuts.

She almost gives into the sensations, but there's something new on the edge of her awareness. Something niggling and dangerous. The Kishin's wavelength, but it's not free. Not yet.

"You're no god."

Medusa chuckles again. An arrow slides up over her head, thick and black. "I'm going to chop off your head," she says, running her thumb over Stein's lower lip.

Stein watches the arrow. Idly, she wonders if she looks like a rat trapped by a snake. No. There's no fear in her. "Senpai," she says calmly. Time seems to stretch. The arrow, she knows, is quick, like her pulse, but each beat seems to come further and further apart. The arrow's at her neck now. If she swallows, the flex of her throat will brush against its tip.

Spirit-senpai's soul snaps to attention. The soul threads they've laid stretch taut. Stein exhales. Ah, as glorious as Medusa's vector arrows feel, this...Stein laughs, and she doesn't care how low and throaty and wanting it sounds because her heart isn't the only thing pulsing now. She arches her hips so she slides against Medusa's leg, motionless now because she's too tightly bound.

"What?" Medusa's smug expression falters for the first time. "But you haven't stitched anything!"

Ah, so Stein has managed to surprise her. "I've sealed your whole body, even your nerves."

Her pulse quickens. Stein feels it strum through the threads, and she can't help the small sound she makes. She can see the threads now, and Medusa looks so beautiful stitched up so.

Medusa laughs. "I see now! This is your limit. You can't break free. My snake's at your neck. The moment you release the threads, you're dead."

Yes, the chances of her losing are about ninety percent. Stein runs through her scenarios, makes her calculations. Eighty-nine point two percent change of failure. But, she can't imagine dying, so that leaves her with one possibility. One wonderful possibility.

She meets Medusa's eyes. They're both smiling, wide and wild and murderous. And they're both panting. Both...aroused, Stein realizes. She can feel Medusa's excitement strumming along the threads. Medusa knows, then.

"Too bad," Medusa says, and then she laughs. Triumph flares briefly across her face.

Stein doesn't hesitate. The opening's there. She takes it, rips the threads apart. Rips Medusa apart, and oh! There's so much blood! It washes over Stein, and it and the lingering vibrations of the shredded threads make her come. She's not sure if she's silent or if she's laughing or moaning, but she's certainly writhing.

She's so caught up in her pleasure, she almost misses the slow seep of insanity. The Kishin's wavelength. Released.

They'd failed. Stein laughs because it suddenly hits her. Medusa's knowledge in that last instant wasn't knowledge of Stein's attack. It was the knowledge that the Kishin had been released. And that's what gave Stein her opening. What can she do but laugh?

She tilts her head back. Medusa's blood is still raining down. Stein revels in it and reaches into her pocket for her cigarettes and lighter. She won, but she lost, and she feels...

Stein lights the cigarette, inhales, ignores Spirit-senpai's screaming. She feels good.


End file.
